Yuval has dug up some amusing (now, perhaps not at the time) court cases involving ukuleles:

– Thomason v Thomason – a cautionary tale where buying a cheap ukulele leads to divorce: “At another time he made a present of a ukulele to his daughter and this evoked from his wife a letter which was in evidence and starts: “Cheap Cheap Cheap Scrooge—Humbug If you can’t buy a uke that will hold strings in tune—why don’t you let some one who knows how buy one—* * * ” It continues in the same tone to its conclusion.”
– State v. Haili – is carrying a ukulele probable cause for a search? The police pull over a car, see a ukulele case, search it (without a warrant) and find a gun. They find that, “In the case at bar, we conclude that once the officers saw the.22-caliber casing on the front floor of the car and the ukulele case, a known repository for firearms, there was probable cause to search,” but conclude, “In granting the motion to suppress the contents of the ukulele case, the trial court ruled that the warrantless search of the ukulele case was unconstitutional.[1] We affirm.”
– Tex Smith, the Harmonica Man,v, Arthur Godfrey et al., Defendants. – Arthur Godfrey was discussing which ukulele to buy on his TV show (those were the days) and says of Tex Smith’s $2.99 uke (those were the days), “to sell the instrument as a ukelele might not be contrary to law but that people who did it should be jailed.” You’ve got to think Godfrey had a point. The ukulele had painted on frets.
– French American Reeds v. Park Plastics – the makers of plastic Islander ukuleles sue the makers of Flamingo ukuleles claiming they’re so similar customers will confuse the two. They decided, “The “Islander” sales volume of 136,000 before the “Flamingo” appeared is not such as to indicate that plaintiff’s plastic ukelele had captured the musical imagination of the country.” Zing! Judge for yourself.

Uke sales are booming, but so is the 2nd hand market. So many people are buying ukes and then selling them on a few months later, are they replacing the uke’s that they’re selling for better made, more expensive instruments? Or are they deciding that the uke isn’t for them?

The recent Daddystovepipe videos of songs from his new book feature some of the best fingerpicking I’ve ever come across, Al. And his voice seems to fit the songs perfectly.

Once economic matters straighten themselves out do you think more new money will be siphoned off to guitar sales? Or will the uke have established itself by then so that people will buy one even when they aren’t hurting so much? I don’t know. Always rooting for the little 4-string though.

Mark’s slack key video is nice. Of course.

Dad bought daughter a uke. He gets custody. Daughter gets support for strings, etc. Mom can suck lemons. Stick her head in a slops bucket.

Remember Nellie McKay saying that when people see her uke case they ask if she’s packing a violin or a machine gun? A shell casing and a uke case do indeed add up to probable cause. Decision overruled.

People who sell ukes for thousands of dollars should be jailed, as well. For crimes against the ukulele spirit. Those who buy them should be committed.

What ukes don’t look similar to other ukes? The Sceptre, I suppose. But most ukes look just like most ukes look just like most other ukes look just like…

Now, what’s confusing is the label “concert” as
applied to ukes. I’ve been ranting about this for as long as I’ve been playing. When you’re looking at ukes for the first time and you see ukes labeled as “concert” what do you think?
Exactly.

I’ve seen some ukes called “alto”. Makes more sense than “concert”. Well, doesn’t it?

From a semantic standpoint, I agree with Al regarding naming conventions for ukes. From a practical standpoint, I agree with Ron. The use of “concert” is not consistent with the labels of other sizes (though I’m taking a leap of faith as I am not familiar with the origins of the various labels).